


Cuddle the Nightmares Away

by elliebelly27



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Eventual Shklance, Finally, Lance can't sleep, M/M, Platonic Cuddling, Sleepovers, Team Bonding, all ships w an & sign are platonic, the team addresses Lance's death, the team decides to help
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-11
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-01-11 06:58:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18425268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elliebelly27/pseuds/elliebelly27
Summary: After a particularly rough battle, the paladins find Lance sleeping in his lion. After some prodding, he reveals that nightmares plague his sleep. The teams finds a solution.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First Voltron fic I've ever done. Let me know what you think! <3

“Is Lance… sleeping?” Hunk asked, confused. 

It had been twenty minutes since they all docked the lions after their last mission. It hadn’t been a particularly hard mission--or rather, shouldn't've been a hard mission. Yet, there had been three too many close calls and the battle with the small Galra fleet had lasted much longer than it should’ve. After everyone showered and changed back to their normal clothes, they all realized that Lance had never come out of his lion. 

Shiro, Hunk, Pidge, and Keith all stood over a sleeping Lance in the cockpit of the blue lion. Pidge was surprised that Blue had let them all in, but she didn’t say anything. 

Slowly, Lance began to stir--his face scrunched, and sweat beaded at his forehead. He began to breath faster, and let out a low moan. The standing paladins all turn to look at each other. Lance started mumbling something under his breath, but none of them could decipher what he was trying to say. 

“Please, please, no, no, no!” Lance was finally speaking loud enough for them to hear. He seemed to cower into his seat. None of them had ever seen the exuberant paladin look so small. 

Lance suddenly shot up in his seat, eyes wide open. He pushed past the standing paladins and practically sprinted to the small waste receptacle in the cockpit, and promptly emptied the contents of his stomach. He collapsed on his hands and knees on the ground, breathing heavily. Hunk had since moved next to him and had placed a hand on his back, rubbing small circles in a soothing manner. 

“Hey, buddy. Are you okay?” Hunk asked.

Lance gave a weak chuckle and turned to sit, facing the paladins. “Yeah, I’m fine. Probably just some bad sushi, am I right?” 

“It seemed like you were having a nightmare, Lance.” Shiro frowned at him. 

“Psht, me? Never! I was just--” Lance abruptly ended his lie upon seeing the solemn faces of his fellow paladins. “Alright, yeah, maybe. But don’t worry, I’ll deal with it.” 

“Why don’t you go get showered and then meet us in the lounge, Lance? I’m sure you need it after that battle.” Shiro asked, without really leaving room for disagreement. 

“Yeah, okay.” Lance said, defeated. Hunk pulled him to his feet and walked him out of the blue lion. 

__________________

Lance leaned against the wall of the shower, letting the scalding water pour down his body. He cursed himself for letting the others find out about his nightmares. So what if he hadn’t slept longer than two hours at a time for over a month? That was his problem to deal with. The team had bigger fish to fry than his silly sleeping problem. Lance thought he’d been pretty good about keeping it under wraps. He’d been wearing concealer to cover the darkening bags under his eyes, and foundation everyday, and putting on a happy, excited-to-be-here face every time he’d had to interact with anyone. _Shouldn’t’ve fallen asleep in Blue_ , he thought to himself as he turned the water off. 

Lance took as much time as possible drying himself off and pulling on his comfiest sleeping clothes--the Altean equivalent of a hoodie, a pair of impossibly soft grey joggers, and his blue fuzzy socks. He was dreading whatever meeting was about to happen. Groaning to himself, Lance slipped out of his room and towards the lounge. 

The paladins were all seated on the couch when Lance arrived, softly chattering amongst themselves. Lance chose the seat farthest from every at the end of the couch and didn’t say anything, instead looking down at his lap. 

“Lance, we’d like to--” Shiro choked on his words when Lance looked up. 

_Fuck, fuck, fuck._ Lance silently cursed himself once again. He had forgotten to put makeup on after his shower. The bags under his eyes and his newly pale complexion were on full display. Lance looked down at his trembling hands, refusing to look at anyone else. 

Shiro looked shocked, Pidge and Keith stared at each other in disbelief, while tears threatened to spill from Hunk’s glimmering eyes. 

Hunk hastily made his way to Lance and enveloped him in a bear hug. Lance wasted no time wrapping his arms around his best friend. 

“Why didn’t you tell us you were having problems sleeping?” Hunk sniffled into Lance’s shoulder. 

Lance mumbled something none of them could make out. 

“What was that?” Hunk asked. 

“I didn’t want to bother anyone. We’ve all got more important things to worry about than wondering if Lance got his beauty sleep.” Lance spoke loud enough for everyone to hear this time. 

Hunk abruptly pulled away from their hug, holding Lance at arm’s length. There was a look of betrayal on his face. 

“Lance, you big, dumb, idiot, you being able to sleep _is_ important.” Pidge said, almost offended. 

“There is no Voltron without you, Lance.” Shiro added, grabbing Lance’s hand. “I’m sorry we haven’t made you feel as though you could come to anyone of us for help.” 

“How long?” Keith asked, quietly. It was first thing he had said this whole time. 

“A while. It was manageable before, but after we saved that planet from the radiation, I haven’t been able to sleep longer than two hours at a time.” Lance said, just loud enough for everyone to hear. 

“Almost two months? Are you kidding me? Why didn’t you tell us?” Keith was almost yelling. He had stood up and was stalking towards where Lance was sitting. 

“Keith, back off.” Shiro used his dad-voice. 

Lance jumped to his feet, “I already told you why! I didn’t want to bother--oof!” Lance was cut off by a bone-crushing hug from Keith, who buried his face between Lance’s neck and shoulder. Lance stood frozen for a couple second, never having received a hug from Keith before. Lance quickly wrapped his arms around Keith. 

“We all love you, Lance. You can tell us anything, you’re never a bother.” Keith said, though his voice was a little muffled by Lance’s shoulder. Lance tightened his arms around Keith even more. 

Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro murmured in agreement and joined in hugging Lance. After a few moments, they broke away and settled themselves on the couch. Hunk and Keith claimed one side of Lance, while Pidge splayed on top of them, hand entwined with Lance’s. Shiro opted for sitting back on the heels of his hands on the floor, ankles laced with Lance’s. 

“What can we do to help you sleep?” Pidge asked. 

“I’m not really sure, nothing I’ve tried has worked.” Lanced rubbed his neck sheepishly. 

“Well, what worked when you had nightmares back home?” Shiro asked. 

“I dunno, I would usually sleep with my parents, or one of my siblings. My siblings would sleep with me sometimes too when they got nightmares, or if they just didn’t want to sleep alone. Like, when Veronica had to stay up late for a project, she always asked me to sleep in her room so she didn’t have to work alone. Or when Rachel had a bad day, she would sleep in my room. Even Marco and Luis would sleep with me sometimes.” Lance smiled softly at the memory. 

“We can do that.” Shiro smiled. “Why don’t we all sleep here tonight? Everyone go grab your blankets and a pillow. I’ll see what Coran can put together for snacks, and see if he and Allura would like to join us.” 

__________________

Hunk and Keith were the first ones back from fetching their blankets, soon to be followed by Allura, Coran, and Shiro. Coran laid out a variety of snacks for them while Hunk, Shiro, and Keith folding down the large couch and setting up pillows and blankets. Lance walked in next, draped in a great number of blankets with Pidge clinging to his back. There was a stack of four pillows balanced in his hands. Lance wobbled to the couch, threw the pillows on to it, then collapsed face first on this pile. Pidge shrieked as they fell. 

“Hey, watch it!” Pidge yelled.  
“That’s what you get for making me carry you, you gremlin.” 

The rest of the team laughed at their antics. 

__________________

Lance was the first to wake the next morning in a tangle of limbs coming from every direction. He groaned and tried to wriggle his way out. He couldn’t turn over, or sit up, so he had to sort of inch-worm himself out of the pile to the edge of the couch. By the time he finally made it, Lance had accidentally woken everyone else up. There was a cacophony of moans and groans, and even a couple of curses. 

The previous night, the paladins plus Allura and Coran, had spent hours telling each other stories of their lives before space. Lance and his siblings, Pidge and her robots, Hunk and his family’s restaurant cafe. Keith had even told them a little about his knife collection, and Shiro about the fiance, Adam, he had broken up with for the Kerberos mission. Allura and Coran spoke of Altea, mainly the food, and for some reason, courting practices. Eventually, Coran excused himself for the night, but Allura had decided to spend the night with them. 

As everyone woke up, and began gathering their things, they all complained of the poor sleep they got and how their backs ached from sleeping on the 10,000 year old couch. 

“Well, thanks for last night guys, I’m sure I’ll figure something out.” Lance said before turning to head back to his room. Truthfully, it had been the best he’d slept in literal years, but he wouldn’t think twice about subjecting any of the other paladins to bad sleep just so he could sleep well. 

“What’re you talking about, Lance?” Pidge asked, scrubbing the sleep from her eyes. 

“I’ll figure something else out? So you guys don’t have to sleep on the uncomfortable couch?” Lance said, but it sounded like a question. 

“Well we can’t all sleep on the couch every night, but you are more than welcome to stay with me if you need?” Allura interjected, before Lance could run off. 

“Me too!”  
“Me three!”  
“Yeah, me too, Lance.”  
“Whenever you need.” 

Lance could feel his eyes watering. It didn’t help at all when Coran walked in and draped an arm around his shoulders. 

“Me as well, my boy. You’ve grown to be like a son to me, anything I can do to help, please let me know.” 

“Thanks you guys. You have no idea how much this means to me.” Lance whispered, pulling Coran into a hug. It turned into another group hug. 

“Since there’s seven of us, you can stay with each one of us once a week. How’s that sound, Lance?” Pidge figured. 

Lance just nodded in agreement, not trusting his voice. 

“I’ll take Tuesdays. You can stay with me tonight!” Pidge said. 

By the time they all headed to their respective rooms, they’d figured out that Allura will take Wednesdays, Keith will take Thursdays, Hunk will take Fridays, Coran will take Saturdays, and Shiro will take Sundays. By the time they rolled around to Monday, they realized someone would have to take two nights a week. 

“I don’t mind--”  
“You can stay--” 

Shiro and Keith spoke at the same time. 

“You all could stay together, I know Shiro’s room is big enough to accommodate the three of you. Plus, I’m sure it would be beneficial to all of you.” Allura said. It was well known, though no one dared ever speak of it, that Shiro and Keith both had had nightmares since joining the Alteans on the Castle of Lions.

All three of the boys nodded in assent, a light blush dusting all their cheeks.

“Then, it’s settled. Now, everyone go get dressed. We have a full day of training ahead of us.” Allura commanded.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tuesdays are for Killbot Phantasm

After a long day of training, Lance was ready to collapse from exhaustion. He fell onto his bed and stared at the ceiling, trying to process everything that had happened the night before. His heart swelled at the love and care his team had shown to him. Before, Lance had always thought they had just tolerated him, Hunk aside of course. Lance knew he and Hunk were the best friend equivalent to soul mates. 

There was a knock on the door just as Lance was about to nod off. He dragged himself from the bed and opened the door to find Pidge. 

“Hey, you’re still gonna spend the night with me right? I’ve got Killbot Phantasm all hooked up if you wanna play.” 

“Sounds good Pidgey. Just gimme 15 to grab a quick shower, yeah?” Lance smiled down at Pidge. 

“Works for me! Oh, and Lance?”  
“Yes, dear?”  
“Call me Pidgey again, and I will not hesitate to end your life.” There was a deadly smile on her face.  
Lance spluttered, “Yep, sure, you got it.”

__________________

Lance struggled to knock on Pidge’s door twenty doboshes later, arms laden with a pillow, blanket, and a multitude of snacks and drink for their gaming marathon. The door slid open and Lance took in Pidge’s room--he had never been in here before. It was a mess to say the least. There were robot parts strewn across her floor and desk, along with dirty laundry and food trash, fairy lights slung haphazardly across the walls, random programming notes taped to the wall over her bed, and was that a scarecrow?

“Oh, sweet! You brought snacks! Here, you can sit on my bed, I’ll boot up the game.” Pidge directed him to the unmade bed, and promptly swooshed everything off her desk, save the monitor and console. There was a loud clattering as everything fell to the floor. 

Pidge climbed on the bed next to Lance, sitting cross legged. She stole half of Lance’s blanket and draped it over her shoulders while grabbing a juice pouch and a snack bag filled with the alien equivalent of pretzels. Pidge nudged a controller in Lance’s hand. 

“Ready to lose, Sharpshooter?” There was an evil glint in her eye.  
“Bring it, Gremlin!” 

After about two and half vargas of playing, Lance sighed and scrubbed the side of his face. They had just finished their 37th round, and Lance was winning, thank you very much, no matter what Pidge might tell you. 

“Think I’m gonna turn in, Pidge. Just kick me if I snore or anything, yeah?” 

Surprisingly, Pidge pulled Lance into a hug. Lance was moderately shocked, but quickly reciprocated. It reminded him of the tight hugs of affection he would get from his younger cousins, back home in Cuba. Homesickness welled up behind his eyes, and threatened to spill over. Pidge sniffled into his shoulder.

They pulled apart and both wiped their faces on their sleeves. Pidge pulled out her laptop, and Lance settled on his side on the bed. His head rest on the pillow, while body was semi wrapped around Pidge, arms wrapped loosely around her waist. 

“Don’t stay up too late, Pidge.” Lance murmured as he drifted off.

__________________

_Lance’s arms were restrained behind his back, as he was forced on his knees. In front of him, his sisters, Veronica and Rachel, gagged, bound and on their knees. They were being held down by a large Galran soldier who was pointing a gun at Veronica’s head. Tears streamed down her face. She was trying to say something, but it was all muffled by the gag._

_“What are you doing?! Let her go!” Lance was screaming at the Galran soldier._

_“Tell us what we want to know and we will. Tell us where the lions of Voltron are.”_

_“I don’t know where they are! I don’t know!” There were tears streaming down Lance’s cheeks._

_A gunshot rang throughout the room and Veronica slumped forward. Blood and brain matter spattered across Lance’s face. His heart stopped, looking at his older sister’s dead body._ This couldn’t be happening, this couldn’t be real. _Lance could feel the hysterics bubbling in his throat, but he couldn’t lose it. He had to save Rachel._

_“Consider that your first warning, Paladin. Tell us where the lions are, or she’s next.”_

_“No, no, no. Please! You have to believe me! I don’t know!” Lance begged and begged. “Please, I’ll do anything.”_

_“Obviously not anything.” The Galran officer chuckled before shooting Rachel._

_“NO! No, no, no, no,” Lance sobbed harder by the second. His sisters. They were laying right in front of him in pools of their own blood. He couldn’t save them._

__________________

“Lance, wake up!” Pidge was shaking him. “Lance!” 

Lance shot out of bed and booked it for the bathroom, just making it to the toilet before he puked up everything he’d eaten the past day. Pidge was at his side in an instant, rubbing soothing circles into his back. She sat him against the wall and filled up a glass of water for him to drink. 

“Here, drink this. I think I have an extra toothbrush somewhere under here.” Pidge rummaged in the cabinet underneath the sink, finally pulling out a bright pink toothbrush, still wrapped in its original plastic. 

Lance weakly grabbed the toothbrush and pulled himself up to the sink. He wobbled a little bit but Pidge steadied him. 

“Do you wanna talk about it?” 

Lance shook his head and went through the motions of brushing his teeth. Pidge grabbed a washcloth and soaked it in cool water. 

“Why don’t we go back to bed, yeah? C’mon.” Pidge pulled him back to the small bunk and light covered him from the waist down with the blanket. She placed the cool washcloth across his forehead, and lied down next to him. 

“Sorry to wake you.” Lance mumbled weakly.  
“S’okay, I was already up.”  
“How come?”  
“I was working on a project for the coalition.”  
“Pidge, you shouldn’t be staying up all hours of the night. That can’t be good for you.” Lance shook his head. 

“You sound like my brother, ya know? He was always on my case about going to bed earlier.”  
“I’ve met your brother, smart man. If not a little weird.” Lance snickered softly.  
“You remind me of him a lot, makes me miss home.” Pidge said the last part a little quieter than the rest. There was a moment of silence between the two. 

“What do you miss the most? From home I mean?” Lance laced their hands together, he knew exactly what she was talking about. 

“That a loaded question if I’ve ever heard one. There’s so many things to miss. I miss the feeling of the sun on my face, my father’s home cooked meals. The way my dog BaeBae would sleep on my feet while I was working on a coding project. And, my mom,” Pidge’s voice cracked, “She always gave the best hugs.” 

Lance squeezed her hand. “Mom hugs are something else, aren’t they? Nothing else really compares.” Pidge nodded, but didn’t trust her voice to speak. “We’ll see them again, Pidge, we have to.” 

“Why didn’t you tell us sooner about your nightmares? You know it’s nothing to be ashamed of, Keith and Shiro get them sometimes too.”

Lance took a deep breath in, “I dunno, Pidge, I just… I didn’t want anyone to worry. We have much more important things to worry about. I already drag the team down enough.” 

“Drag the team down? Lance, are you kidding me? We would be a mess without you! All of us! You’re the one who keeps us together, with your silly jokes and constant mother-henning.” Lance just shrugged. 

“Lance, it’s true. You’re the only one who can calm Hunk down during one of his stress-baking episodes! And, you force Allura and Shiro to relax, lord knows they need it. I know that Coran thinks of you as his son, and Keith would be tense 24/7 if you weren’t around to take the edge off with your laid back attitude. And you’re always bringing me stuff to eat and drink because you know I tend to forget when I get busy with a project.” 

Pidge looked up to Lance’s glistening eyes and pink cheeks and pulled him into a hug. Her head rested on his chest, and his hands were locked behind her back. Lance leaned down to kiss the top of her head. 

“Thank you, Pidge, that means more to me than I’ll ever be able to say.” 

They fell asleep in that position, and neither stirred until well past breakfast the next morning.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance train together. Lance and Allura have their sleep over and share some things about their past. Keith and Shiro both need to learn watch where they're going.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didn't mean for this too be this long, but alas, here we are. 
> 
> Also, italics denote Altean speech unless otherwise stated/inferred. 
> 
> Also (pt II), big thanks to those who left comments, you guys are the best. <3

“Do you wanna train with me?” Keith asked while looking down at his feet. Lance was kind of surprised, Keith had never asked to train with him before. 

“Sure, Samurai. What did you have in mind?” Lance answered with a smile.

__________________

Keith and Lance had been sparring on a mat they had dragged out from the closet for a good hour, and Lance had only been pinned three times so far. He was proud of that since Keith was miles better than him at hand-to-hand. And, Lance had come pretty close to pinning Keith twice already.

“You’re better at this than I would’ve expected.” Keith grunted as they circled each other.  
“Gee, thanks. Real sweet, Keith.”  
“Ugh, that’s not what I meant. I just… never see you in here, training.”  
“Oh, well I train a decent amount actually, it’s always just in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep though. I think I probably averaged like, two to three hours every other night after the radiation belt planet. Plus, I usually practice shooting more anyway.” Lance explained with a shrug. 

Keith was momentarily stunned at Lance’s confession. _Two to three hours every other night? After everyone had gone to bed. That was… intense to say the least._

Lance took advantage of Keith’s dazed state and went in for the kill. He knocked Keith’s feet out from under him, but Keith grabbed his arms as he struck, bringing Lance down too. They landed with a grunt, and Lance straddling Keith’s lower abdomen, hands landing next to Keith’s head. Quickly, Lance grabbed his hands and pinned them above his head. 

“Give up? I’ve got you this time!” Lance crooned. 

Keith only smirked at him. With a flick of his hips, Keith had rolled them over so their positions were reversed. Lance’s hands now pinned above his head, Keith sitting on his lap. “Not quite, Sharpshooter.” 

A blush rose to Lance’s cheeks and Keith soon realized what their position looked like too. 

“Ah, sorry,” Keith rolled Lance and quickly stood up, offering a hand up. “You did well, I’m impressed.” 

“Pshh, you’re just saying that.” Lance stuttered.  
“No, I mean it. Why would I lie about that?” Keith was confused.  
Lance was silent. 

“Hey, Lance, you know I don’t actually hate you, right?” Lance looked at him, surprised. “I know we haven’t really got along all that well... but I’m just kind of new to having friends and all. Aside from Shiro, I guess.” 

Keith looked down at the floor at this admission, his face quickly growing hot. Lance was surprised that Keith had never had any friends, but the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. 

“Well that settles it, I’m gonna be the best friend you’ve ever had. You better prepare yourself for this, I’m gonna blow you away with how good a friend I can be.” Lance stuck his hand out, “Deal?”

Keith stared blankly down at the hand being held out to him, taking a minute to process what Lance just said. He look up to Lance’s smiling face and knocked his outstretched hand away. Lance’s face dropped for a second before Keith launched himself onto Lance, pulling him into a tight hug. 

“Deal.”

__________________

After Lance and Keith’s morning training session, followed by a quick team lunch, Lance disappeared to the Castle’s library. It was ginormous, shelves towering to the top of the already taller than normal ceilings. There were books on every topic imaginable, the only problem was that they were all in alien languages. Mostly Altean, but there were a sizable amount in Galran and Olkarion.

Lance took his normal seat in the corner in his comfy rolly chair, behind a desk stacked with books and notebooks, and a computer. He had discovered the library late one night after a particularly bad nightmare, back when they only happened occasionally, and was struck by the idea of learning Altean and Galran and Olkarion, and every alien language he possibly could. That was almost a year ago now. He was determined to make himself an asset to the team, and since he was pretty good with languages, it was a natural fit for him. Blue was pretty helpful in teaching him through their bond too. 

Back at home, Lance had grown up bilingual, his parents speaking both English and Spanish to him since birth. Once he turned ten, Lance decided that he wanted to learn as many languages as he could. Lance quickly found that it wasn’t as hard as his normal studies, and picked up Russian from his friend’s Sergei’s family in the third grade, then Arabic from his friend Maria’s family in the seventh grade. He had a hard time with the reading and writing part, the book learning was always the hardest for Lance, but he found it came much easier after a lot of practice speaking and listening. Hunk had taught him Samoan too, but just the speaking and listening part, they hadn’t had time for reading and writing with keeping up with the Garrison’s academics. 

Lance had become passably fluent in Olkarion, and was almost completely fluent in Galran and Altean. He had spent the last month and a half reading and translating Altean books, starting with children’s chapter books, but quickly moving up to adult non-fiction and the like. He was working on one last book in the Altean language before moving onto the book learning of the Galran language. His last Altean book was a thick encyclopedia, as Lance found them to be the most challenging, but most rewarding. They really bolstered his vocabulary. 

After a few hours of working, Lance had just finished the nineteenth letter of the Altean alphabet (out of twenty-seven of course), a letter that closely resembled a Q. The door slid open and Allura strode in.

“Lance, what are you doing in here?” Allura inquired, eyes narrowing.  
“Oh, hey, princess. I was just studying a bit, heh. I’m sorry, I didn’t know the library was off limits…”  
“My apologies, Lance. It’s not, you are more than welcome to use it whenever you like. I just haven’t seen anyone working in here since…” Allura shook her head lightly at the thought. “Anyways, what are you working on?”  
“I’m working on Altean today, but I should be finishing up in a few movements.”  
_“You know Altean?”_ Allura gasped.  
_“Yeah, I’ve been study for a while now. Galran and Olkarion too, but I’m not as good at those ones. I wanted to make myself useful to the team.”_ Lance looked down to his hands.  
“Lance,” Allura placed a hand on his shoulder, “I can’t say I’m not thrilled that you learned Altean, but you don’t need to do all this to make yourself more useful to us. You are already an invaluable Paladin of Voltron.”  
“Thanks, ‘Llura.” Lance sniffles, “Hey, did you need something when you came in?”  
“Oh, I was just coming to find you for our, what do you call it, rest unders? You missed dinner.”  
That pulled a laugh out of Lance, “Close, princess, sleep over.”  
“Yes, that! Would you still like to do a sleepover with me?”  
“I would love to do a sleepover with you, princess.” Lance smiled.

__________________

Lance quickly stuffed his sleeping clothes, toothbrush, skin care products, and workout clothes for the next day into his small backpack, along with a book on ancient Altean fairy tales. Allura’s room was all the way on the other side of the castle and he didn’t want to walk all the way back for clothes and toiletries the next morning. He stopped by Pidge’s room to grab his pillow and blanket, and dropped a chaste kiss on the top of her head while urging her to go to bed at a reasonable hour.

Lance finally made it to Allura’s room and knocked on her door. 

“Lance! Welcome! Please come in, make yourself at home.” Allura greeted with a smile.  
“Thanks, Princess.” 

“So, Lance, what do you humans usually do at these ‘sleepovers’, hmm?”  
“Well, it depends. The stereotypical sleepover usually consists of gossiping about crushes, and doing each others hair or nails of makeup or all of the above. And a movie and pizza and ice cream too!” Lance explained.  
“I think I can manage the hair, nails, and a movie. I don’t know what pizza or ice cream are though. And what is a crush?”  
“Pizza and ice cream are only the best comfort foods ever! I can make you some ice cream sometime with milk from Kaltenecker, and a crush is someone you have romantic feelings for.” Lance talked to Allura’s back as she dug through one of the drawers of her vanity. 

Allura yanked a bag out of the drawer with a huff, “Found it! For our nails! Will it work?” Allura held the bag full of nail polish up to Lance’s face.  
“This is perfect, princess!” Lance exclaimed. “What color do you want? I think I’ll go for the blue.”  
Allura dug through bag for a minute before pulling out an iridescent purple, “I’d like this one!”  
“Good choice, I’ll do yours first, then you can do mine?”  
Allura only nodded in response. 

A comfortable silence settled between Lance and Allura, Lance was concentrating on getting Allura’s nails to look perfect, and Allura seemed to be lost in thought. 

“Where did you learn to do this?” Allura asked.  
“From my sisters.” Lance cleared his throat, “My older sister Veronica made me learn so I could get do her right hand for her. And then, I sure got a lot of practice in on Rachel, my twin sister, who could get me to do almost anything for her. I got so good, that I was invited to all my younger cousins slumber parties so I could paint all the little girls’ fingernails for them.”  
“You have a twin sister? I didn’t know. You must miss her a great deal.”  
“I miss my entire family, but yeah, I miss Rachel a lot, it’s a different kind of miss though.”  
“I know what you mean,” Allura paused for second, “I had a twin brother back on Altea. His name was Anton. He was kind, and extremely friendly. He made at least five friends every time he entered a room. Kind of reminds me of you actually.” 

Lance grabbed Allura’s hand, taking care not to smudge the fresh polish, and gave it a light squeeze. 

“Gone, but not forgotten.”  
“Yes, gone, but not forgotten. Never forgotten.” Allura returned a small squeeze to Lance’s hand. Both of their eyes had become a bit glassy, but neither chose to comment on that. They held hands for a moment longer, relishing in the memories of their loved ones. 

Allura broke the silence, “I think mine are dry, how bout I do yours now?”  
“Will you tell me about them? Your family, I mean. You don’t have to if you don’t want, but sometimes it’s nice to talk about those who are no longer with us.” Lance asked quietly, flattening his palm to the tabletop. There was a long moment of contemplation.  
“I know what you mean, about missing your twin differently than the rest of your family. Anton and I, we were partners in crime really. We knew each other inside out. He could answer my questions before the thought had even developed in my mind.” Allura gave a watery smile as she swiped nail polish on Lance’s left hand. “We got up to a lot of trouble, caused quite a ruckus sometimes. But, we always got away with it. No one ever wanted to punish Anton. The only person who ever came close was my father, but he always had a soft spot for me. I was always a daddy’s girl, but my brother was a momma’s boy through and through.” 

Allura paused for a few seconds and Lance switched hands. 

“By the time we had turned five, it was very apparent that it would be me inheriting the throne. Anton’s interests were never in leading, he was far too relaxed to ever consider taking such a burdensome position. But, he was a hell of a diplomat. Everyone was a little more willing to compromise when it was Anton asking them. He understood people just a little bit better than anyone else.” 

“He sounds wonderful, Princess. I wish I could have met him.”  
“Me as well, Lance. Me as well.” 

Lance pushed himself to his feet after a few moments of silence. “Well, I think our nails should be dry by now, what’d you say about moving onto hair? I don’t really have enough for you to do anything to mine, but I could braid yours?”  
“What is a braid?” Allura asked. Lance gasped.  
“This is a travesty, I must show you immediately. Just let your hair down and lean back.”  
Allura looked at him bewildered, but complied anyway. 

Lance snatched the hairbrush off her vanity and brushed out Allura’s long, silver locks before getting to work on a French braid.

“Lance, do you still have a crush on me?” Allura asked a few minutes into the braiding process.  
“Um, er, well,” Lance stuttered as a light blush sprung to his cheeks. “I don’t think I ever really did, actually. Flirting is kind of my coping mechanism to new situations. Plus, I don’t really think we’d make the best couple, ya know?” 

“Yes, I agree, Lance. I think we are best suited to being close friends.” Allura let out a breath of relief at the admission. 

“I am truly sorry if any of my flirting made you uncomfortable though.”  
“It’s quite alright, thank you for your apology.” 

It took Lance close to fifteen minutes with the mass of Allura’s hair, but he was extremely pleased with the final product. _Haven’t lost it yet, McClain._

“Okay, you can look now!” Lance grabbed the handheld mirror so that Allura could see the back. She quickly snatched the mirror out of his hands. 

Allura was mesmerized by her reflection. “This is amazing! How did you do it?” 

“Oh, ah, well, it’s pretty simple actually. I can show you later if you want?” Lance rubbed the back of his neck at the praise, before Allura tackled him with a hug.

“Please, please, please! I want to wear it forever!” Allura’s excitement was bubbling out of her. 

“Well, you don’t want to sleep with it in, it’ll be uncomfortable if you do,” Allura looked dejected, “but I’ll braid it for you whenever you want. I did it all the time for my sisters.” Lance was quick to resolve the sad look on the princess’ face. She beamed up at him.

__________________

Not long after the braiding session, Lance and Allura decided to head to bed. They each took turns changing in Allura’s bathroom before settling into the large bed. Lance on his back on the right side, Allura sitting with her legs hanging off the bed on the left side.

“Thank you for tonight, Lance. It was really nice getting to talk about my family.”  
“Anytime, ‘Llura. I mean it.” 

Allura flipped the light off and settled on her stomach, hand intertwined with Lance’s between them.

__________________

Lance ended up sleeping through the night with no disturbances. He woke ecstatic, to say the least. He quickly went through his morning bathroom routine (pee, teeth, face, hair, in that order) before exiting to see an awakening Allura.

“Morning, Princess. How’d you sleep?”  
“Very well, and you?” Allura asked while yawning and stretching her arms above her head.  
“Very well also! Didn’t wake up once!”  
“That’s wonderful to hear, I’m glad you’re doing better.” Lance responded with a wide smile. 

Allura climbed out of bed and grabbed a small remote off her vanity. With a press of a button, a huge closet opened up from the wall. Lance’s jaw dropped in shock. 

“You have a Hannah Montana closet?!” Lance excited out of his mind, this was like a dream come true. He wanted one of those closets so bad ever since he watched that one episode of Hannah Montana. 

“What’s a Hannah Montana closet?” Allura asked in confusion. Lance just stood there speechless, waving his hands at the closet. “You’re welcome to borrow anything, I only ever wear the same kind of dress or the Paladin armor.” 

Lance all but ran into the closet. He flicked through the numerous racks, and scanned the rows of shoes. He nosed through a few drawers before finding a goldmine of yoga pants. 

“You even have yoga pants! Can I please borrow these, Princess, I’ll do anything” Lance pleaded.  
“Of course, Lance. You’re welcome to anything in here. But, what’s a yoga?” Allura was still confused.  
“Well, yoga is type of exercise. It increases your strength and flexibility, as well as a lot of other things.. It’s a lot harder than it looks though. Yoga’s pretty low impact too, which is nice--fewer injuries.”  
“It sounds wonderful! Did you do it back on Earth? Can you show me?”  
“But of course, Princess, we can get a quick workout in before breakfast, but you’ll need these.” Lance tossed her another pair of yoga pants.

__________________

Lance had dragged out a large workout mat that closely resembled a yoga mat into the middle of training room.

“Ready, Princess?” Lance asked. Allura answered with a vigorous nod, her newly braided hair bouncing.  
“I’m afraid the only yoga poses I know are sun salutations, but those are a good place to start.” 

Lance and Allura began working through the poses, Lance giving out a few pointers where needed, but Allura seemed to be a natural.

__________________

Shiro scrubbed his face sleepily as he made his way towards the training room. Him and Keith trained together most mornings before breakfast. Shiro considered it to be a good way to start the day.

He walked in the training room, expecting it to be empty, but instead found Lance and Allura… with their asses in the air? Not watching where he was going, Shiro’s eyes quickly found Lance’s ass, especially in those tight pants, and he ran directly into one of the support beams. There was a loud clang as the metal of his prosthetic crashed into the metal of the beam. 

Allura and Lance both snapped up, looking at Shiro.

“Ahh, Shiro, you okay over there, bud?” Lance asked.  
“Uh, yeah, sorry for interrupting. I didn’t know you guys would be in here this early.” Shiro tried to play it off cool. As if he didn’t just run into a pole because he was too busy checking out Lance’s ass to pay attention to where he was walking. 

“No worries! You are welcome to join us if you like.” Allura said as Lance nodded along.  
“Umm, maybe? I have to stretch first.”  
“There’s plenty of space on the mat if you do decide to.” 

Shiro stood off to the side, pointedly _not_ looking at Lance as they moved back into the downward dog position. He was mentally scolding himself when Keith walked in. Shiro could tell by his face that he too was confused by the other two paladin’s presence. He watched with great amusement as Keith’s gaze also quickly found Lance’s yoga pant clad ass, still stuck high in the air. _How long does this pose last?_ Shiro asked himself. Not a moment later, Keith too walked directly into the support beam, though the resulting clatter wasn’t nearly as loud as when Shiro did it. Shiro let out a low chuckle as Keith’s face flushed bright red.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith surprises Lance, and they get to know each other better, in more ways than one.

It had been a long day. The paladins had trained together for a few hours, running through various exercises, and then Lance spent an hour and a half giving Blue and well-deserved scrub down. He slowly made his way back to his room, and promptly face planted his bed. Lance hadn’t spent very much time in here over the past few days. He figured he would be safe if he closed his eyes for just a few minutes.

__________________

Lance woke covered in sweat a little more than a half hour later. It hadn’t been that bad comparatively, he didn’t throw up immediately after, but all of his nightmares were horrifying, and this one hadn’t been any different. Instead of the Galra killing his Earth family like normal, they were torturing Allura and Pidge in front of him. Lance shook his head, trying to will the nightmares away.

After a quick shower, Lance rolled himself up in his blanket and went to knock on Keith’s door. There was a muffled clattering from the other side of the door, and then it slid open to reveal a flustered Keith.   
“Oh, hey, Lance. How are you?” Keith asked, trying to be casual while leaning against the door frame, blocking the blue paladin’s view of his room. Once he actually got a good look at Lance’s face, he grew concerned. “Hey, are you okay, man?” 

“I, um, accidentally fell asleep and had another nightmare. Is it still okay if I spend the night with you?” Lance asked in a small voice. 

“Yeah, of course! Just… wait here for like thirty seconds yeah?” Lance nodded in confusion as response. 

Keith darted back into his room and the door slid closed again. _What on Earth is he doing?_ Lance winced at a particularly loud clattering. Moments later, he reappeared at the door, slightly out of breath and invited Lance in. 

Lance walked in slowly, a little curious as to what Keith had been doing to cause such a racket. What he finally saw took his breath away. There were huge masses of fluff stuck to the ceiling that resembled clouds alight with various colors, dark greens, blues, and purples. Makeshift glow-in-the-dark stars were scattered across Keith’s walls, and a blanket was spread on the floor, with a little picnic basket on the corner. 

“Keith, what is all this?” Lance asked, still slightly breathless. 

“I know you miss home a lot, so I thought a beach picnic might cheer you up?” Keith asked nervously. He moved to his desk and pressed a button on a weird looking electronic box. Ocean noises started playing. “I’m sorry, this was a dumb idea..” 

Lance practically launched himself into Keith’s arms, burying his face in the crook of Keith’s neck, arms wrapped tightly around his waist. “Thank you, Keith, I love it.”

They remained in that position for a few minutes, Lance clinging tightly to Keith, while Keith rubbed soothing circles into his back. 

“So, what’s for dinner?” Lance pulled away to look at the red paladin. 

“Well, I found some purple shrimp like things at the last planet we visited? And I borrowed some cream from Kaltenecker, and used the weird Altean flour to make something that hopefully tastes like shrimp alfredo?” Keith looked down at his feet nervously. 

“I didn’t know you could cook!” Lance exclaimed.   
“I couldn’t at first. But, my shack in the desert only got Food Network, and I got tired of ramen. Almost burnt the whole place down a couple of times.” Keith chuckled. 

Lance grabbed Keith’s hand and pulled him down to sit on the blanket next to him. “Well, in that case, I can’t wait.”

__________________

Lance and Keith spent most of their evening laying on the blanket on their backs, staring up at the cloudy ceiling above. Keith’s alien shrimp alfredo had been good enough to rival Hunk’s, and he had even snagged a few of the Altean cookies from the kitchen that weren’t exactly like edibles, but kind of had a similar, slightly dampened, effect on humans that pot brownies did.

The swapped stories back and forth once their bellies were full. They shared some of the best parts of their lives on Earth, and some of the worst. At some point, they ended up holding hands, but neither boy seemed to mind. 

“So, how do you know yoga?” Keith asked, face flushing at the memory of earlier that morning. 

“Oh, well my twin sister, Rachel, was super into it. When we still lived in Varadero, she would go out to the beach every morning at sunrise and do her fancy yoga poses. After she lost her lower leg though, she couldn’t do it for a while. Eventually, after months of physical therapy she was finally able to try it again. Rach was a little nervous to, I could tell, twin thing--ya know? I asked her to teach me, and she agreed. Seemed like a pretty low pressure way to get her back into it.” Lance explained. 

Keith felt a tug at his heart as Lance described the situation, and squeezed Lance’s hand. 

“You’re a really good brother, you know that?” Keith tilted his head to smile at Lance. 

A light blush appeared on Lance’s cheeks and he spluttered, “Well, I don’t know if I would go that far, I do what I can for my fam, they’re the best of the best, I’m telling you.” 

“I would.” Keith brought the back of Lance’s hand up to his lips, and placed a small kiss there. 

Something stirred in Lance’s gut at Keith’s seemingly off-brand action. His face grew hot and he turned to look back up at the multicolored clouds. 

“Uh, thanks,” Lance cleared his throat. “Thanks, man. That means a lot.” 

Keith also turned back to look up at the ceiling. They spent a while like that, in comfortable silence, holding hands, laying and staring at the clouds. After a little while, Lance started to yawn, and Keith ushered him to bed, picking up the blankets and picnic basket. Keith unplugged the lights to the clouds and dropped on the bed next to Lance. 

“Is there anything I can do to help with the nightmares?” Keith asked.   
“What, you mean like cuddling or something?”   
“Um, yeah, I guess?”  
“I didn’t think you actually be down for that.” Keith was thankful that it was too dark for Lance to see his ever reddening face.   
“Well, I wouldn’t be against it if that’s what you mean.” Keith admitted quietly.   
“Sweet! C’mere dude, let’s cuddle then.” Lance said, excited. He was kind of a huge cuddlebug. 

The situated themselves with Keith tucked against Lance’s chest, arms wrapped around his torso. One of Lance’s hands rested comfortably at the nape of Keith’s neck, his other arm wrapped securely around his lower back. 

“Comfy?” Lance asked.   
“Very.” Keith answered. 

Lance closed his eyes and tried to drift off to sleep, but Keith’s alertness was keeping him up. 

“Aren’t you gonna sleep, Keith?”  
“Sorry, it usually takes me a while to fall asleep.”   
“Here, I got you.”

Keith certainly wasn’t expecting Lance to open his mouth and start singing. Turns out Lance has the voice of an actual angel, it was low and steady, beautiful. Keith could feel the vibrations of voice where his head was against Lance’s chest. He felt safe. 

_Yo soy un hombre sincero,_  
De donde crece la palma  
Y antes de morirme, quiero  
Echar mis versos del alma  
Guantanamera, guajira guantanamera 

Keith didn’t know what Lance was singing, but Lance’s voice was soothing. He didn’t want to fall asleep and miss a single note, but he did within minutes anyway. 

Once Lance was certain Keith was out, he finished his song and planted a chaste kiss on his forehead, and quickly drifted off to sleep himself.

__________________

Lance was the first to wake the next morning, Keith still cuddled against his chest. He shifted ever so slightly and Keith groaned and cuddled closer, tightening his grip on Lance. Lance flushed at the action and stared down at the sleeping boy with a soft smile. He rubbed circles into Keith’s back, slowly starting to wake him up.

“Keith, Keithy boy, it is time to wake up. Rise and shine. Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey.” Keith only groaned in response, nestling himself further into Lance.   
“Don’t wanna.” Keith mumbled. Lance’s heart clenched at the heartbreakingly adorable boy.   
“I know, but you have to.” Lance carded his fingers through Keith’s hair. “If you don’t, I’ll have to turn to more dastardly methods of waking you.” Lance’s voice turned mischievous. 

Keith hardly had time to question it before Lance’s fingers found his sides, “Tickle war!” 

Keith squirmed beneath Lance, desperately trying to flip them over so he could get Lance back. “Oh, you dick. It is so on.” 

They fought for dominance for a while, and Keith came very close to pinning Lance, but in the end, Lance was victorious. He had Keith’s hands pinned above his head, straddling his hips, still tickling his sides with his one free hand mercilessly. “Say Uncle and I’ll stop!” 

“Never!” Keith bucked his hips upward in one last attempt to flip over, but instead found delicious friction. He let out a moan and the time as Lance. 

Lance’s hands fell away from Keith, his eyes wide, staring down at the pinned boy below him. Lance ground his hips down against Keith’s experimentally, and Keith’s hands came up to grip his hips. Keith let out another moan, head falling back against the pillow beneath him. Lance let out a shaky breath, but continued. 

Lance moved so that he was practically laying on Keith, latching his lips to Keith’s exposed neck. He peppered hot, open-mouthed kisses everywhere there was exposed skin. Keith guided Lance’s hip in step with his own, sliding one down to grip Lance’s ass. Keith had a hard time stifling his moans of pleasure. He could feel Lance sucking a hickey low on his neck, but it felt too good to stop him. 

A loud clattering jolted them both out of their ministrations. Keith’s knife had fallen from its place under his pillow. Lance was off him like lightning, 

“Uh, sorry, that was-, I’ll just-, bye!” 

Keith’s door slid shut before he could even process that Lance had all but ran away from him. He groaned into his pillow, _I fucked up._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for all your comments! They really mean the world to me. Hope you enjoyed the new chapter! 
> 
> Hit me up on Tumblr if you have any suggestion or just say hi! My user name thing is help-I-cant-think-of-a-user


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